Dwindling numbers of Scots pine could do terrible damage to Scottish psyche

The risk to Scots Pine from red band needle blight is real (“Disease threatens ancient pine forests”, 20 March ), but I notice that in her response to the problem, Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham gave a long account of all the many things the Scottish Government were doing to help with climate change, but didn’t make any specific mention of the issue at hand.

At the moment, most forestry money is being diverted towards woodland creation schemes, at the expense of managing existing woodland. A few tens of millions of pounds invested in our iconic pinewoods would make a huge difference, especially as Scots Pine is designated our national tree, and what might this disease do to our national self-esteem as a country if the species started to dwindle from our landscape?

There is also the more insidious chalara ash dieback which is now well established and endemic over much of Scotland, but which is something that no-one seems to want to talk about.

Between the risks to these two species, and others such as juniper, we do have a serious problem with our future tree health.

One concern of mine is that the responsibility for forestry is now split between two Cabinet secretaries, with Fergus Ewing dealing with the hardnosed practical stuff and Roseanna Cunningham dealing with the more cuddly stuff.

If we could get our political co-ordination lined up a bit better and a modest additional resource put in, then we can manage these issues and not have the very sad outcome suffered by elm in the 1970’s. We may or may not be able to do something about climate change, but the issues at hand are more manageable if we can focus on them, and do it now.

VICTOR CLEMENTS

Mamie’s Cottage Aberfeldy Perthshire